Under the patronage of the Minister of Tourism, His Excellency Mr. Michel Pharaon, ihjoz, the first digital ticketing network in Lebanon, hosted a conference entitled: Ticketing in the Digital Age for Events and Tourism. The event was held at the Hilton Hotel on March 10, 2015, in the presence of partners, industry stakeholders and key members of the press.

Panelists at the ihjoz conference included His Excellency Mr. Michel Pharaon, Minister of Tourism, Mr. Khalil Daoud, CEO of LibanPost, Mrs. Randa Bdeir, Head of Electronic Banking at Bank Audi, Mr. Bassam Tueni, co-founder of ihjoz, and Sami Tueni, co-founder and CEO of ihjoz.

Former singer turned Islamist militant Fadel Shaker has decided to turn himself in to security agencies in the coming days, his lawyer announced on Monday.

“Fadel wants to turn himself in in the coming days,” the lawyer May Khansa, who is defending him before the Military Court, told Agence France-Presse.

Former pop star turned Islamic militant Fadel Shaker, who has been on the run for nearly two years, has said he wants to return to his "normal, natural life" with his friends and family.

In an interview with LBCI TV released Saturday, Shaker also denied fighting alongside the gunmen of Islamist cleric Ahmed al-Asir in the fierce 2013 clashes with the army in the Sidon suburb of Abra. At least 18 soldiers and dozens of gunmen were killed in the fighting.

The military commander of al-Nusra Front in the Syrian province of Idlib was killed Thursday in an operation by the Syrian army, state-run news agency SANA said.

The agency said Abu Hammam al-Shami was slain during a military operation that targeted a Nusra meeting in the village of Habeet, in the northern Idlib province.

The U.S. Treasury Department has said that it placed sanctions on an Africa-based Hizbullah support network.

Mustapha Fawaz, Fouzi Fawaz, and Abdallah Tahini were sanctioned for acting for or on behalf of Hizbullah in Nigeria, the Treasury said in a statement.

The U.N. refugee chief, Antonio Guterres, has called for more financial assistance for Lebanon and other countries hosting Syrian refugees, saying it is “absurd” for the tiny country not to enjoy World Bank grants

“Countries like Lebanon and Jordan need much more financial assistance – not only to local refugee hosting communities, but also through government budget support for necessary structural investments in health systems, education, water supply, electricity and other public infrastructure cracking under the huge pressure,” Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday.

The French judiciary on Thursday dismissed a ninth parole request submitted by detained leftist Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been in jail since 30 years.

At a protest outside the French embassy in Beirut, a spokesman for the International Campaign for the Release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah said the activists were notified by the prisoner's lawyer that the parole was rejected.

A leading Syrian opposition figure, Louay Hussein, said he was freed on bail on Wednesday, more than three months after he was detained.

"I just left prison, I am on my way home," Hussein told AFP in Beirut on the phone from Syria, adding that he was in good spirits.

Four French lawmakers met with Syrian President Bashar Assad Wednesday during a private trip to the war-torn country, despite a breakdown in diplomatic ties between Paris and Damascus.

The French government, which supports the moderate Syrian opposition and wants Assad to leave power, was quick to clarify that the lawmakers were there in no official capacity.

Lebanese satirist Charbel Khalil appeared before a prosecutor in Beirut on Monday after Dar al-Fatwa, the country's top Sunni religious authority, filed a judicial complaint against him for allegedly defaming Islam.

Khalil found himself in hot water after he shared a photo on Twitter that was perceived by some as insulting to Islam.